FDBusiness.com

Australian brewer Foster’s has renamed its troubled, global wine business as Treasury Wine Estates in advance of a planned demerger next year. With 12,000 hectares of vineyards, 20 wineries and 50 wine brands, including Penfolds, Lindemans, Wolf Blass, Rosemount, Stags’ Leap, Wynn, Beringer and Castello di Gabbiano, Treasury Wine Estates is the second largest wine producer in the world and incorporates some of the most popular and collected wines from Australia, California, France, Italy and New Zealand.

“Since the acquisition of Mildara Blass and Rothbury Wines Ltd in 1996, Beringer Wine Estates in 2001 and Southcorp Ltd in 2005, we’ve assembled one of the world’s great wine businesses. The creation of Treasury Wine Estates marks the next natural step in that journey, accelerating a cultural change and business transformation that began with the completion of the Wine Strategic Review in February 2009,” points out Ian Johnston, chief executive of Foster’s. “With six of the ten most collected wines in Australia, America’s leading premium brand in Beringer Vineyards, and a collection of outstanding international wines, this is a business with impeccable credentials.”

Foster’s is in the process of restructuring its wine business in preparation for the demerger.